{"id":51869,"date":"2026-04-07T09:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T01:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/?p=51869"},"modified":"2026-04-03T16:38:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T08:38:22","slug":"%e4%bb%80%e4%b9%88%e6%98%afsubagent%ef%bc%9f%e4%b8%80%e6%96%87%e8%af%b4%e9%80%8fsubagent%e7%9a%84%e5%8e%9f%e7%90%86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/51869.html","title":{"rendered":"What's SubAgent? It's about SubAgent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-51870\" title=\"64f14ee7j00tcwt52005sd000iw007kp\" src=\"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/64f14ee7j00tcwt52005sd000iw007kp.jpg\" alt=\"64f14ee7j00tcwt52005sd000iw007kp\" width=\"680\" height=\"272\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The latest mess of OpenClaw's fire, even one of my wife's never been interested in AI knows about the lobster fire. So I'm sure if you've had contact with OpenClaw for some time, you've heard a word:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/tag\/skill\" title=\"[Sees articles with [Skill] labels]\" target=\"_blank\" >Skill<\/a>I don't know. And if you've played OpenClaw a little deeper, you must know Skill very well\u3002<\/p>\n<p>The term may have been spoken by a few before March, but it is different now. Even my colleagues have recently finally begun to discuss Skill. Because you'll soon find out that Skill can give it to AI \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/tag\/agent\" title=\"[View articles tagged with [Agent]]\" target=\"_blank\" >Agent<\/a> Increased capacity\u3002<\/p>\n<p>Maybe a lot of people haven't thought about it. When the task becomes complicated, the problem arises\u3002<\/p>\n<p>You can keep adding a lot of Skill to AI to make it more skilled. But many times, it's really stuck in you, not it won't, but it can't do much alone\u3002<\/p>\n<p>It's not about Skill, it's about another important thing that I'm going to talk about today:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/tag\/subagent\" title=\"[See articles with [SubAgent] labels]\" target=\"_blank\" >SubAgent<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>MY SERIES OF THREE-MINUTE WHITE WORDS THAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND\u3002<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/51861.html\/\">What's AI Agent? How can it solve its own problems<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/51863.html\/\">What's Skill? Let me show you what Agent Skills is<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The following example may not be relevant enough, so let's try to understand\u3002<\/p>\n<p>Let's start with a delivery shop<\/p>\n<p>The simplest way to understand SubAgent is to imagine what you're doing with a delivery shop, a high-end restaurant, a Michelin level, which is pretty profitable\u3002<\/p>\n<p>No SubAgent: All by yourself<\/p>\n<p>Suppose the whole shop just opened to save money because you're alone\u3002<\/p>\n<p>You're the boss, the shopkeeper, the dishwasher, the cook, the cashier, the packer, the distributor\u3002<\/p>\n<p>Your day could be like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I'll go shopping in the morning<\/li>\n<li>Come back and wash and cut<\/li>\n<li>We just opened fire on the cooking. The customers just finished<\/li>\n<li>We've just got the money. We've got to pack up<\/li>\n<li>I had to give it to myself after packing<\/li>\n<li>After the delivery, the customer is gone, the food in the pot is gone, the kitchen almost blew up<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The problem is not that you have not done enough. The problem is that when one does too much at the same time, sooner or later it's messy\u3002<\/p>\n<p>THAT'S A LOT OF PEOPLE NOW USING AI IN THEIR REAL STATE\u3002<\/p>\n<p>Lord Agent (the same as the main conversation we often have in the tool) search for information, write about it, check the facts, change the format, and remember what was said before, in this conversation. As long as the mission is long and the context is more than that, it starts to get confused, it starts to get distracted, it starts to leak, and finally it ends with something that's written, garbage AI\u3002<\/p>\n<p>SubAgent: Starting division of labour<\/p>\n<p>What would be wiser<\/p>\n<p>Not to make the boss fight harder. Instead, jobs are dismantled and assigned to professional staff in different fields\u3002<\/p>\n<p>for example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lord Agent: You're the boss, with a cigarette, against the lobster, and you're only responsible for the task and the results<\/li>\n<li>Procurement SubAgent: Specialized in procurement, price, order of purchase<\/li>\n<li>SubAgent: Washing, cutting, preparing food<\/li>\n<li>Cooking SubAgent: Specializing in cooking, controlling the fire, ensuring the production of products<\/li>\n<li>Cash collection SubAgent: handling customer closings, reconciling orders, part-time online billing<\/li>\n<li>Packing SubAgent: classification, boxing, billing<\/li>\n<li>SubAgent: Get the delivery out on time<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That way, everyone does one thing of their own. Nobody bothers each other. It's a lot more than that<\/p>\n<p>This is the core of SubAgent, which is used by Master Agent to sort out the demand, dismantle the task and send it to SubAgent to do it, and get it back to Master Agent for further acceptance\u3002<\/p>\n<p><strong>What the hell is SubAgent<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In short, SubAgent is a sub-agent specializing in certain types of tasks\u3002<\/p>\n<p>It's not a normal function, it's not a simple call. It's more like: Lord Agent gave the task to an independent assistant, who did the job in his own context and gave it back\u3002<\/p>\n<p>Official documents are also defined as follows: each sub-agent has an independent context, a separate reminder, and specific tool privileges to handle specific tasks. Claude<\/p>\n<p>So you can understand it:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>Skill is the equivalent of a better tool for the same person; SubAgent is the equivalent of an assistant to the same person who is able to perform a sub-mission independently\u3002<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>These two are not the same thing\u3002<\/p>\n<p><strong>SubAgent, what's best for you<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SubAgent isn't all right. It's most appropriate for tasks that can be broken down, divided and relatively independent at each step\u3002<\/p>\n<p>Most typically, a complete content production process\u3002<\/p>\n<p>For example, you type a keyword to automatically generate an article that can be published. This process can be broken down into steps:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Search for information and find information online<\/li>\n<li>Filtering information to reload, filtering ads, picking out the most useful 5-point section<\/li>\n<li>Write first drafts of articles based on selected materials<\/li>\n<li>Factual verification checks data, examples, statements, right<\/li>\n<li>It's the same style that makes the articles sound the same<\/li>\n<li>Formatting Uniform Titles, Paragraphs, Lists, Blocks<\/li>\n<li>Generate final visual part of the map or cover<\/li>\n<li>READ IT MANUALLY, GO TO THE A.I., READ IF IT'S UNSOPHISTICATED, ETC<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>What do you fear the most? Most likely, everything is stacked in the same context\u3002<\/p>\n<p>HERE, IT IS ASSUMED THAT EVERY PLATFORM OF MY INFORMATION SOURCES, SUCH AS THE PUBLIC CODE SEARCH FOR FIVE ARTICLES, TWITTER SEARCH FOR FIVE ARTICLES, HEADLINES FOR FIVE VOTES, SITE B FOR FIVE ARTICLES, AND SO ON, LEADS TO A LONG CONTEXT WHEN I START\u3002<\/p>\n<p>The search phase will bring with it a great deal of information, a great number of drafts will follow during the writing phase and the verification phase will be constantly modified. If it's all stuck to the same master Agent, it's easy to say, \"It's full of noise trash.\"\u3002<\/p>\n<p>But subagent would be different\u3002<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Search package for search SubAgent<\/li>\n<li>SubAgent<\/li>\n<li>Verification SubAgent<\/li>\n<li>Layout sub-Agent<\/li>\n<li>&#8230;&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Lord Agent only looks at the results of each ring, not at all the middle-generated garbage process\u3002<\/p>\n<p>So SubAgent is best suited to these scenes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Multi-step tasks<\/li>\n<li>Process-type tasks<\/li>\n<li>A mission with clear responsibilities at every step<\/li>\n<li>The middle process does not need to be shared with the main Agent task<\/li>\n<li>There are tasks that can be written and even advanced in parallel<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>for example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Code Review<\/li>\n<li>Lines for content production<\/li>\n<li>multilingual translation<\/li>\n<li>Search and collation of information<\/li>\n<li>Testing, verification, uniform format<\/li>\n<li>Long-process automation tasks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One sentence summary:<\/p>\n<p>The more complex, the more dissectable, and the more easily contaminated with context, the more suitable it is for SubAgent\u3002<\/p>\n<p><strong>SubAgent's greatest virtue, and its shortcomings<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The greatest advantage<\/p>\n<p>First, the context is cleaner<\/p>\n<p>This is the core value of SubAgent\u3002<\/p>\n<p>Each sub-agent has its own independent context. The noise generated during the search does not contaminate the writing; drafts produced during the writing do not interfere with the verification; problems identified during the verification do not disturb the context\u3002<\/p>\n<p>The Lord Agent sees, always the result of a clean-up\u3002<\/p>\n<p>It's like the boss doesn't need to stare at how many onions have been cut. All he needs is to know is that if the food is ready, if he can come to the table\u3002<\/p>\n<p>Second, more focus, more steady results<\/p>\n<p>One Agent does five things at the same time, and one Agent does only one thing, which usually has a completely different effect\u3002<\/p>\n<p>SubAgent, who specializes in information, is more like a researcher; SubAgent, who specializes in writing, is more like a writer; SubAgent, who specializes in verification, is more like a reviewer\u3002<\/p>\n<p>Because they are not distracted, quality is usually more stable\u3002<\/p>\n<p>Third, we can go in parallel<\/p>\n<p>Some tasks do not have to be lined up\u3002<\/p>\n<p>For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A. RESEARCHING INFORMATION<\/li>\n<li>B IS PREPARING AN OUTLINE<\/li>\n<li>C. PROCESSING REFERENCE FORMATS<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A few SubAgents move at the same time, and the speed will be much faster. OpenClaw documents also include parallel processing, long quarantine tasks as one of the main objectives of sub-agendas. ( )<\/p>\n<p>OpenClaw<\/p>\n<p>Fourth, reusable<\/p>\n<p>Once you've written a good SubAgent, like the \"Fact Examiner\" \"Factual Examiner\" \"Filer\", you can be used again\u3002<\/p>\n<p>This is completely different from the ad hoc introduction. It's more like you've got an old employee, just next time\u3002<\/p>\n<p>Fifth, more complex tasks<\/p>\n<p>A lot of complicated tasks are not AI can't do it, but an Agent can't\u3002<\/p>\n<p>When the length of the task, the steps and the amount of information come up, SubAgent is often the way to break the upper limit of complexity\u3002<\/p>\n<p>Its shortcomings<\/p>\n<p>Of course, SubAgent isn't everything\u3002<\/p>\n<p>First, the configuration has a threshold<\/p>\n<p>You have to tell it:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What does it do<\/li>\n<li>Call under what circumstances<\/li>\n<li>What tools can we use<\/li>\n<li>What's the end result<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If it's not clear, it's easy to miss\u3002<\/p>\n<p>Second, the transfer of information may be missing details<\/p>\n<p>Between SubAgent and main Agent, the mission statement and summary of results are usually transmitted\u3002<\/p>\n<p>This is efficient, but at a cost. Some key details may have been compressed during the handover\u3002<\/p>\n<p>In other words, the isolation context is an advantage, but information compression is also a risk\u3002<\/p>\n<p>Third, debugging is more troublesome<\/p>\n<p>If there is a problem with the final result, it will be more difficult to find out\u3002<\/p>\n<p>You have to see:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Is the search the wrong file<\/li>\n<li>Or is writing in the wrong direction<\/li>\n<li>Or is verification missing<\/li>\n<li>Or did the layout phase fail<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The longer the chain, the more complex the problem of positioning\u3002<\/p>\n<p>Fourth, small missions are not worth SubAgent<\/p>\n<p>If it's just a word, a text, a title, it's usually faster if it's done directly by Agent\u3002<\/p>\n<p>This kind of small matter is clearly overstretched, as is the creation of a special procurement, cook and distribution of three posts for a bowl of noodles\u3002<\/p>\n<p>So, SubAgent's strong, but it's not as good as it gets, but it's for a job that really deserves to split\u3002<\/p>\n<p><strong>What are Skills and SubAgent's choices<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When many people first came into contact, the easiest thing to ask was:<\/p>\n<p>Skill, why SubAgent<\/p>\n<p>Because these two things do not solve the same problem\u3002<\/p>\n<p>Skill, it's a capacity problem<\/p>\n<p>It's the role of the Lord Agent to learn a new talent\u3002<\/p>\n<p>For example, format check, fixed template generation, documentation, some type of standard output. These are direct additions to the main Agent\u3002<\/p>\n<p>It is usually appropriate to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Light<\/li>\n<li>Clear rules<\/li>\n<li>It's not complicated<\/li>\n<li>Need Master Agent to keep context under control<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, Skill is more like:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>A better tool for the same person\u3002<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>SubAgent solves the division of labour problem<\/p>\n<p>Its role is to outsource an entire task to an independent professional role\u3002<\/p>\n<p>It is usually appropriate to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Heavy tasks<\/li>\n<li>Multi-step tasks<\/li>\n<li>The middle is long<\/li>\n<li>It's not appropriate to stack all the information in the main context<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So SubAgent is more like:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>This is done directly to a specialized person\u3002<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>How do you decide which one to use<\/p>\n<p>You can use a simple standard:<\/p>\n<p>When using Skill<\/p>\n<p>When you think:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\"I want Lord Agent to know one more ability.\"<\/li>\n<li>\"It's not complicated.\"<\/li>\n<li>\"The process I hope it always knows.\"<\/li>\n<li>\"I don't want any more movement.\"<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Then use Skill\u3002<\/p>\n<p>for example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Format specification check<\/li>\n<li>Fixed Style Rewrite<\/li>\n<li>Simple Template Output<\/li>\n<li>Single light task<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Using SubAgent<\/p>\n<p>When you think:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\"Can this be done alone?\"<\/li>\n<li>\"This step should not contaminate the main context.\"<\/li>\n<li>\u201cBetter be dealt with by a specialized role\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe intermediate process is long, but ultimately only results\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Then use SubAgent\u3002<\/p>\n<p>for example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Code Review<\/li>\n<li>Data collection and screening<\/li>\n<li>Lines for content production<\/li>\n<li>Multiple rounds of verification and revision<\/li>\n<li>Long-term mission in step<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The most common correct answer is actually mixed<\/p>\n<p>In reality, the best options are often not one or the other, but are used together\u3002<\/p>\n<p>for example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Master Agent is responsible for overall coordination<\/li>\n<li>Skills<\/li>\n<li>SubAgent<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That means:<\/p>\n<p>Skill is in charge of capacity-building, SubAgent is in charge of the division of labour and the execution of sub-missions\u3002<\/p>\n<p>The two are not competitive, they are partners\u3002<\/p>\n<p><strong>Summarize<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A lot of people fall in love with Skill when they first contact the AI workflow. It's normal, because Skyll's intuitive: it works, it works\u3002<\/p>\n<p>BUT WHEN THE TASK IS GETTING MORE COMPLICATED, YOU'LL SOON FIND THAT IT'S NOT ENOUGH TO JUST ADD SKILLS TO AI. BECAUSE THE REAL PROBLEM IS OFTEN NOT \u201cIT WILL NOT DO IT\u201d, BUT \u201cIT DOES EVERYTHING BY ITSELF\u201d\u3002<\/p>\n<p>That's when SubAgent's value came out\u3002<\/p>\n<p>IT'S NOT ABOUT AN EXTRA PLUGIN, IT'S ABOUT GETTING AI FROM \"ONE PERSON DEAD\" TO \"ONE PERSON DEAD.\"\u3002<\/p>\n<p>So, if you're starting to get to OpenClaw and you're familiar with Skyll, the next step is probably SubAgent. Sub-Acts can also be used in OpenClaw, and even ACP Acts in OpenClaw. Claude Code and Codex also support SubAgent, albeit in different ways. Of course, you can use Claude Code to plan the mission and have Codex work for you. There's a lot of tricks. Do you have any other ways<\/p>\n<p>Because, in a sense, a truly mature AI way of working is not to let an Agent work hard, but to learn to give the right job to the right character\u3002<\/p>\n<p>It's important to do something. It is the division of labour that really begins to lead to high-level play\u3002<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The latest mess of OpenClaw's fire, even one of my wife's never been interested in AI knows about the lobster fire. So I'm sure if you've been in contact with OpenClaw for some time, you've heard a word: Skyll. And if you've played OpenClaw a little deeper, you'll be familiar with Skyll. This term may have been spoken by a few before March, but it is different now. Even my colleagues have recently finally begun to discuss Skill. Because you quickly found out that Skill could add power to AI Agent. Maybe a lot of people haven't thought about it. When the task becomes complicated, the problem arises. You can keep adding a lot of Skill to AI<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[144],"tags":[1405,8417,8437],"collection":[],"class_list":["post-51869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baike","tag-agent","tag-skill","tag-subagent"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51869"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.1ai.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=51869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}